Companies must have the right tools in place that allow for the effective management and forward movement of their talent. Given the increasingly competitive nature of the business world in today’s ever-connected environment, talent management from both a recruiting and retention perspective is crucial to ongoing success. With the best-fit tools used to empower a workforce, organizations can move toward greater efficiencies, higher productivity, and ultimately, more profitability. One of the ways this is accomplished is through performance management software.
Businesses utilizing performance management software reap several rewards that link to bottom line improvements. While not every company will use performance management solutions in a similar fashion, one or more of the following advantages can offer sustainable, significant benefits in practice.
Recognition Opportunities
One of the most powerful aspects of implementing a performance management system is the opportunity it provides management and peers to give recognition to employees. Through these capabilities, employees who are doing their best work consistently can receive the recognition they deserve at the time they need it. The completion of professional development courses or training may also be recognized, as can recent promotions or moves within the organization. Recognition received by employees can be housed within the platform, making it easier to retrieve when it is time for a more in-depth appraisal.
Training and Education
A common reason employees feel disconnected and disengaged on the job is because they do not see opportunities to grow in their career with the company. Through performance management software, this challenge is more easily overcome. Professional development courses, training opportunities, and job education can be offered seamlessly to the employees, based on their wants and needs. Managers can see what individuals have achieved over time, and they can match learned skills to organizational needs more effectively.
Ongoing Feedback
Implementing a performance management system within a company is becoming more necessary, as managers move toward a continuous model of workforce management. Part of this transition leans on the idea that consistent, ongoing feedback of individual performance is crucial to both the employee’s and the organization’s long-term success. Performance management software offers a way to provide and log feedback of employee performance in real-time, not just once per year at an annual review. This gives companies a way to adjust employee goals quickly and efficiently.
Employee Empowerment
Performance management solutions used within an organization also give control back to the employee. Instead of relying solely on their supervisor or team lead for feedback, recognition, and performance evaluations, individuals can use the tools within a performance management system to review their own progress over time. Performance management software also gives employees the ability to see how their contributions make a difference in their team, department, or the organization as a whole.
Future-focused Evaluations
A driving force behind infusing technology solutions into the performance management process is the need to look ahead, not backward, in an organization. Software solutions do not simply rely on previous information about an individual or team’s performance, but instead offer insight into what’s ahead for a company. There is less concern of using outdated or inaccurate information throughout the performance management cycle, and this can be invaluable to organizations when recruiting or retaining talent.
More Meaningful Reviews
Using a performance management platform offers the benefit of empowering managers and supervisors to have more meaningful reviews with employees. The combination of ongoing, trackable feedback, recognition, and education and training achievements takes away the traditional frustrations of gathering or remembering this information when it is time for an appraisal. The data is already compiled for each employee, and it can be used to guide evaluations in a more efficient, meaningful way.
Ability to Integrate
Many technology solutions today offer integration capabilities to organizations, and performance management software is no exception. With the right platform, companies have the opportunity to connect other systems that offer their own unique advantages. For instance, connecting performance management with career pathing software can help employees engage on a deeper level with the organization over time, in the realm of their own performance progress and their career development desires.
Improving Engagement
Continuous performance management empowered by a software solution is known to boost engagement among employees – a focus of many companies as the business world becomes more competitive and profit-driven. When individuals see that their efforts on the job are being recognized, and they have a clear vision of how their contributions attribute to a company’s broad successes, increased engagement is the end result.
Increasing Retention
Organizations have an opportunity to increase their retention metrics for their highly talented workers with the help of performance management platforms. One feature of the software is the ability to define corporate goals and align those with individual objectives and work tasks. Employees who can see the line connecting the two are more likely to stay with a company, as they feel the work they do is a valuable addition to the company as a whole. Increased retention reduces the expense of turnover, and helps management promote from within.
Eliminating Biases
Finally, the use of performance management software greatly reduces and may potentially eliminate biases that plague employee appraisals. Instead of focusing on the most recent wins or losses of an employee, management teams can go back and review the total picture based on the data kept within a performance management solution. This creates more accurate evaluations which ultimately lead to increase engagement among workers and efficiencies within the company.
About the Guest Post Author:
Linda is the Founder and CEO of TalentGuard, a global provider of award-winning career pathing and talent management software. Inventive and driven, she is known throughout the industry for disrupting HR technology and is the inventor of the first commercially available career pathing software solution designed to optimize employee engagement and retention.Prior to TalentGuard, Linda was a key executive at pcOrder, where she helped to transform an early stage start-up into a leading NASDAQ-listed public corporation. She also held executive roles at other start-ups and Fortune 100 companies. When she isn’t immersed in entrepreneurship, Linda enjoys being in the great outdoors, hiking, running marathons, and singing karaoke. She is an advocate of women’s leadership and empowerment and has led various prominent charities, including the Young Women’s Alliance and American Cancer Society. Linda has two amazing sons and is married to her best friend, Frank.
